I'm hard put to post anything at all these days as I'm barely afloat what with starting up a cake business, reviewing grants for the federal government, wrapping up a children's healthcare project, taking care of children with chicken pox and seizure disorders and newly navigating teendom. Throw in marriage, visits from family, impending spring break and April is poetry month, well, there is no end to what I could write about, but I don't write about.
Here's a quote from an editorial that one of my favorite columnists, Nicholas Kristoff wrote in today's New York Times:
Isn’t it better to inconsistently save some lives than to consistently save none?
Kristof is speaking about the current conflict in Libya and what some people call a humanitarian response to the American intervention there and others deem another act of aggression. I don't have clear thoughts about this -- partly due to ignorance and mainly due to a general fatigue at matters outside of my immediate reach. The older I get, the more I become or keen toward pacifism, toward non-violence, but wonder, too, how one can possibly be engaged in the world and not recognize brutality and meet it with force.
The Dalai Lama says The principle of nonviolence should be practiced everywhere. This cannot be achieved simply by sitting here and praying. It means work and effort, and yet more effort.
This might be what I'll muse about as I cheer for my son at his 8:30 am on a Sunday baseball game. If you have any further thoughts, let me know, because I'll be back soon and would love to read them.
I ponder this too, Elizabeth. And have since my teen years. Is it naive to think that there is never a cause evil enough to rationalize violence? Is it naive to think that meeting violence with violence only leads to more violence?
ReplyDeleteI don't know.
I think it's not naive. But then I think of how some times fire is fought by setting another fire.
I wish I knew but I don't.
I do know I can choose to live my own life with as little as possible, whether in word, thought, or deed.
I love you for not being afraid to tackle the big questions. And the big government, too.
I have a hard time mustering up compassion when neighbors are killing neighbors and the one with the better guns and ammo is winning.
ReplyDeletei have been thinking about this a lot and like you, i don't know where to land, and then i feel its too big to get my arms around so i try to get my arms around my life instead, and often that feels impossible too. I do think there are no easy answers, and that intention is key, here. and i do think many people are being disingenuous about what they truly think and using the whole thing as political fodder, which in the end is just so much noise, and part of the reason we are having such a hard time cutting through it all to get at what we think. in the end, i come back to the question of intention. the solution may be imperfect but i do believe the intention was a right one. as far as we can be absolute about these things.
ReplyDeletewow, you have your hands full. sending love!
wv: patiness (suggesting no pat answers, maybe?)
While you speak of the violence on a global level,I have been preoccupied on the recent incident at the Dodger game a few days back.Right her in our very own backyard.
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to figure out,how it is, that a handsome young guy,giving his life to helping others as a paramedic,wears the wrong baseball cap, sporting a different team and ends up facing surgery to remove part of his brain.
I know it isn't exactly what you are referencing but the core is the same:violence.Never have understood it.Never will
There are no easy answers, probably not even right answers, as everyone has a difference of opinion on what's right. Sadly the US has a long history of interfering in foreign governments with often horrendous outcomes: Chile, Angola, Vietnam, Afghanistan, to name a few. However, not getting involved, like in Rwanda, is not an option either. I've got no answers sadly.
ReplyDeleteI'm hopeful that the actions in Libya are indeed the "effort and more effort" part of the equation.
ReplyDeleteI see the comment about the violence in Dodger stadium and have to say my son experienced that first hand yesterday. Nothing injurious, but only because Tim showed some class and refused to respond to the violent shove and words that were used against him because he wore a Giants hat and shirt as he stood quietly in line (with his mother). Sad. Another dodger fan standing behind us in line just apologized on behalf of Los Angeles and added another touch of class back into the situation. Two touches of class beat one show of violence, even if they are quieter.
Carry on. Keep doing what you do.
ReplyDeleteI've been feeling so overwhelmed by it all lately.
ReplyDelete